A Long Journey To Freedom
by DarlingAgnes
Summary: Although Sirius fell behind the veil, he has been rescued. He is determined to perform tasks for the Order outside the Grimmauld Place, with a charming help at hand. SB/OC


It has definitely been one of the most curious nights of his life. The night he was born again...

All that he remembered was yelling at Bellatrix:

"Come on, you can do better than that!" and his voice echoed around the cavernous  
room. All of a sudden, there was another jet of light, this time hitting him squarely on the chest. The remains of laughter lingered on his face, but his eyes widened in shock at the same time. He felt being swept off his feet, falling backwards, his body curved in an arc. The last thing he had seen before he vanished behind the veil was Harry, running towards him up the steps. Then there was silence. And darkness. From the moment he fell through the veil, a feeling of loneliness overwhelmed him. He knew there was no coming back from this dark deserted place. He was floating, there was no solid ground, in fact there wasn't anything at all. An invisible force was pulling him further and further down the surrounding darkness, torturingly slowly and as it did, all of the worst feelings rushed into him. No bad memories as in Azkaban, just a plain and pure despair...

He thought himself drifting into unconsciousness when he felt a jerk forwards, as if he has been caught by a large fishnet and the movement had stopped. All of a sudden, the point in the darkness where the veil was supposed to be started shining a vivid orange and a line has been drawn towards him and sneaking around his waist; it has been pulling him back towards the veil. At the same time he felt the force that pulled him deeper into darkness starting to pull him again, but for the moment, the orange line prevailed. It had pulled him almost to the big archway, but there it had stopped. Sirius was so close now he was able to see a hooded figure in black robes, with only its hands visible. The orange line started from its right hand, and the person was gripping it as an end of a rope. From the way the figure was leaning backwards he could say there was an end to the rope that was not visible and the figure has wrapped it around itself for support. It was pulling at the rope violently, with all its might to prevent Sirius from slipping further behind the veil.

"Help me," a female voice shouted. Although the distance between them has been just a few yards, it felt like she was calling to him from far away, her voice echoing from where she was. Sirius opened his mouth but no sound came out, he found himself voiceless. Then came another sharp pull.

"Get rid of the despair. Show that place you don't belong there," she shouted after him. In another situation he would think it highly amusing. Not now though. To get rid of despair? Even now, when there was a chance he could still make it, he couldn't. He was pulled backwards again and to his great shock he saw the person make an involuntary step forwards. She lingered for a moment and then she has been pulled towards the archway again, mere steps away.

"Come on, work," she screamed. She shook her head so that the hood fell back revealing a rather young face screwed in concentration and few strands of blonde hair out of the tight bun. She was pulling the magical rope with all her might, looking into his eyes with a silent plead. He tried. It helped, at least she hadn't made any step forwards. She murmured something to herself, then looked around and from the top of her lungs screamed:

"Alastor, where the hell are you?" She jerked the rope with her hands, turning to twist herself around it once more.  
Sirius tried with all his might to think that maybe he could get out of that situation. Moody's name sounded so familliar, after that, he knew she must have been one of them. He thought hard to fight the loneliness inside him, to stop the pull backwards with his mind. And it seemed to work. The door to the room burst open.

"Sorry, I was stuck. Let me help you," said Mad-Eye Moody taking hold of the rope himself.

"Finally, I almost ended up there as well," said the woman.

"I wouldn't believe that for a second," laughed Moody as they both pulled hard for a while, until finally Sirius felt himself being cast away from behid the veil and falling onto the ground. Moody managed to remain on his feet, but the woman did fall as well as the orange line vanished and she lost her balance. Sirius looked up to see her supporting herself by her arms and breathing heavily. Moody knelt beside her and offered her his hipflask.

"Here, drink this, you will feel better." She nodded and took a large gulp. She handed him back the flask, then she raised herself off the ground. She smiled at the old auror.

"Thank you for your help Alastor." She dusted off her shoulders and back and threw the hood over her head again. "I must dash, I can't be seen meddling here. I'll be meeting all of you later," she said over her shoulder as she walked away.  
Sirius slowly stood up. Mad-Eye reacher for his stick and limped towards him.

"You've had a long journey. Merlin, if Angela hadn't turned up, you would have been gone forever." Sirius opened his mouth, wondering whether he wiill be able to speak this time.

"Who... was she?"

"Angela is a new Order member. Luckily she is one of the sensible ones at the Ministry and Dumbledore didn't have much trouble with persuading her to join. Come Sirius, let me get you to a safe place where you can apparate from back to Grimmauld place."

"What about Harry?" he asked, his thoughts rushing immediately back to his godson.

"He's alright, Dumbledore's with him. You just go, we'll join you at the headquarters soon."

"But Harry might be needing me." Moody put his hands on Sirius's shoulders.

"Sirius, he already almost lost you once today." Sirius sighed, but nodded in agreement and let himself be led out of the Department of Mysteries to one of the empty offices and with a small pop he vanished into his attic bedroom.


End file.
